Hamuko's Bento
by 122 Generation
Summary: Hamuko thinks Makoto deserves a better lunch, so she goes to make one specially for him. As Hamuko told herself, she only had to cook, so how hard could it be?
1. Failure 1 (Hamuko)

**This is my first Persona fanfic. I entered the Persona fandom about two and a half years ago, but I think it's been one of the best game series I've ever played! I thank Dancing All Night for getting me into the series. Anyway, without further...**

**I do not own this idea, by the way! This is credited to a fanmade video I watched featuring MC and FeMC! If you've watched it, you know which I mean.**

* * *

**Failure 1 (Hamuko)**

**Monday**

**Gekkoukan High: Lunchtime**

He finally woke up from sleeping in class, as he infrequently did. He could have stayed awake if he wanted to and become more knowledgeable, but to be honest there was more value in sleeping in class. What better to spend your school days than sleeping? After all, he was feeling tired, so why not sleep? It was easier than listening. All he needed to do was sleep on his desk, it was that easy.

And by then, it would be lunchtime.

Makoto lifted his head up from his desk to see the last of his classmates leave the door. Even though his blue hair practically obscured his right eye, at least he had the left eye which was good enough. Sighing, Makoto stood up and packed the rest of his books and pencils. He missed out on the lecture (hadn't he missed half of them already?), but no matter. Yukari would most likely have gotten notes down, so he could always ask her for the notes. If Yukari was in a good mood, perhaps she might reiterate the entire lecture for him (which was rare).

Otherwise, he could ask Ryoji, or he could ask a certain auburn-haired girl.

Then again, he was sure he could manage things on his own. Just catch up on the readings, pull all-nighters in his room and risk suffering from fatigue, go to Tartarus the next night, and sleep in class the following day. It was easy enough, despite the vicious cycle it was.

Makoto yawned and walked out of classroom 2-F.

* * *

_This must be the dullest ham between two slices of bread ever_.

Not a ham sandwich. It was _ham between two slices of bread_. Somehow, the quality of the ham had been declining lately. It did not taste salty, but there was no flavour in it either. In fact, he couldn't taste anything at all! How was this possible…? The bread was sweet at best, but the ham was not doing any justice to him.

He looked at the ham between two slices of bread in his hands.

He could eat it, or not.

"…"

Unknowingly to Makoto, a certain auburn-haired girl wearing a pair of red headphones around her neck was following him close behind. Who other than his highly extroverted and bubbly co-leader who brings nothing but trouble wherever she went? Hamuko could tell by the blue-haired leader's expression that he did not enjoy lunch, at all.

Something had to be done, right? There was a big problem on her hands, and Hamuko needed to solve it.

So to solve these problems, there was only one place in the whole world to go to that made sense: the home economics room, of course!

"It must be done!" she excitedly told herself. She was going to make Makoto the perfect lunch. He will eat it and like it! And hopefully, he might take a liking to her more often despite having been paired together countless times in Tartarus. Not that Hamuko had any problems going on every single outing, but Makoto's lunch was a problem. She knew that had to be improved and she could do it. After all, how hard could it be?

"Not that hard, I think,' she said, smiling.

* * *

**Tuesday**

**Gekkoukan High: Lunchtime**

After class had ended, Hamuko instantly left class, glancing at the sleeping bluehead on her way out, and went straight to the home economics room. Hamuko had no plan, to be brutally honest, but she guessed he would like curry, right? Everyone loves curry!

Half an hour or so later, Hamuko came bursting out of the home economics room with a nicely packaged box in her hands. Confident as she was, Hamuko put her headphones on her ears, switched on her MP3 player, and went in search of Makoto.

"_I will burn my dread… (Gonna burn the dread, gonna burn the dread) Burn my dread…"_

She practically had her eyes half-open as she moved her head to the beat. Those percussions were catchy, and there was no going wrong with Lotus Juice. Holding her box as she walked in the hallways and past the washrooms, Hamuko was oblivious to the world around her.

"_There's no man's land no man ever survived – Invisible hands are behind you just now –"_

Hamuko had heard this song so many times, she was mouthing the lyrics as if she were Lotus Juice himself. He would be impressed, she bet (Lotus Juice, not Makoto). Speaking of which, where was Makoto anyway? He couldn't still be in class sleeping, could he?

Actually, he would.

"_No soul robust all dust we bust justice to the man with no life_."

Uh-huh. Yeah. The man with no life fit Makoto's profile perfectly. Why else would he be spending his school hours sleeping in class? That was practically lifeless on its own.

Plus, Makoto loved listening to the _exact_ same song. That helped.

"_Tear up your fear, the end is coming near, spit it out like a spear I'll burn your dread –"_

Hamuko quickly removed her headphones the instant she saw him. Yes, the blue-haired sleepyhead had been sleeping the entire time and looked like he was well-rested. He was no longer tired and was about to take that ham between two slices of bread out of his bag. That will not happen today! No longer will he be bored of boring food!

"Hmm? Hamuko-chan…?" he said.

As she took another step forward, Hamuko became self-conscious about what she was doing. She quickly hid the box behind her back.

"Uh… Um… Hiya! Makoto-kun!" she said, quickly. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks already. Gosh, how hard could it be? It was just lunch! Delicious food that she was giving as gift to him. He had to like it, right? "Don't mind me! I mean, I thought you should have something better to eat than that ham sandwich of yours –"

"It's not a ham sandwich," Makoto interrupted curtly and quietly. "It's ham between two slices of bread."

That caused Hamuko to pause.

"What?! Isn't that the same thing as a sandwich?" she said. "You know, for all I know of the so, so, cool Makoto-kun, he was never one to tell jokes."

"But it's not a joke. I'm serious." Makoto's voice was blunt (or did it sound blunter than before? Hamuko thought). To be fair, many regarded him as cool, but many not as cool as Hamuko made it out to be. "It's just ham between two slices of bread."

"That's basically…"

She trailed off, then shook her head. Instead she wore a bright smile and showed the box to him. "Um, here! I made this for you!" she said, as she placed the box in his hands along with a pair of chopsticks just for him. If anything, he couldn't refuse food from a girl who cooked it specially for him, right? Hamuko brightly looked into Makoto's face (or rather, just his left eye), with her smile getting increasingly wider as Makoto opened the lid.

"…"

Whatever Makoto was looking at, there was no way to describe it. Was this supposed to be a bento? No. This was curry and rice. But then again, he could not bring himself to consider this 'food'. Was this even edible?

In short, what Makoto was looking at was sludge. Purple sludge.

But he could feel his brain sending a dozen warning signals. Intuitively, he should not eat this curry. There was a suspicious odour rising from the box that told him, and agreed with his brain, to not eat it. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

"You're not going to eat it…? It will go cold."

Makoto looked up, only to see Hamuko beaming him with such emotion and happiness that put his cool demeanor at odds with her. His only reaction was nothing more than a blank face, and uncertain at best. But this food… There was every reason to fear it.

He had faced countless Shadows before.

He (and Hamuko) had led the fight against Shadows appearing at full moon, which were enormous and took time to fight.

He had even escaped Death probably more times than he could count. The thought of the Reaper on his back and its rattling chains was not easily forgotten. So how hard was it to try Hamuko's cooking? But it was anything but appetising.

"Hamuko-chan. It looks terrible," Makoto said.

But that did nothing to wipe the smile off Hamuko's lips. "It only looks terrible! But it will taste great! I think so, yes." She kept grinning.

"So you're saying that you have not tasted this yourself?" Now the food even felt dangerous to look at.

"But that means you have the honour of trying it first! Um… Makoto-kun…" Hamuko kept beaming at him, looking into his eyes expectantly (yes, even his right eye). "You'll eat it, right?"

Makoto swallowed.

It had to be done.

With those chopsticks, he picked up a bit of the curry-covered rice and held it delicately in his hand. Now that he had a closer look, the odour was _visible_. How could this be…? It was nothing short of unnatural, and only Hamuko could pull that off. Well, perhaps that was a silver lining in all this.

_Here goes_, he thought. He tasted the curry.

"It's…" he started.

He was feeling normal and rested when he woke up in class.

But now he was feeling tired.

"Makoto-kun! It tastes good, right? Right? Tell me!"

Now he felt his condition becoming sick. No, it was worse than that. He was feeling like he was pushed to the brink of Death. Death was welcoming him with open arms. He collapsed on the floor, much to the anguish of Hamuko and everyone around them.

"Makoto-kun? What's wrong? Wake up!" Hamuko knelt quickly to shake him. Makoto was fading into unconsciousness.

Makoto could hear Hamuko's voice from far away…

* * *

**Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to its prey.**

**One is always aware that it lies in wait.**

**Though life is merely a journey to the grave…**

* * *

**More failures to follow...**


	2. Failure 2 (Fuuka and Ryoji)

**Wow! Thanks for the quick favourites and alerts! And reviews from Press-START360 and GrimReaperJr1232.**

**Rest assured... Death won't follow our blue-haired friend so easily.**

* * *

**Failure 2 (Fuuka and Ryoji)**

**Tuesday**

**Tartarus: Dark Hour**

Makoto's absence did not go unnoticed by everyone at SEES. For one, Makoto was absent, after hearing he had a very bad case of sickness at school. Word on the street, however, was that he had eaten something so horrifying that those who had seen what he had eaten are still haunted. As a result of that, he reported to the school's medical room and – word on the street said – had ingested some kind of concoction that made his condition not much better.

So for tonight, he decided to sleep early, which left Hamuko to lead the team through Tartarus.

But Hamuko had no intention to go to Tartarus yet. Instead, she had some requests of her own that she wanted to keep private.

"Fuuka-chan," she said. "If you don't mind, could you tell me what condition Makoto-kun is in right now?"

"But he's probably still in his room sleeping, Hamuko-chan," Fuuka replied. "Um, it's not like you to ask me to spy on him. Is something the matter? If you really want to know, he is not getting out of bed. Is there something you'd like to know about him?"

Hamuko's face went slightly pink.

"No, no! Just wanting to know what foods he likes. He needs, ah, better nutrition! Have you seen what kind of food he packs for lunch?" Hamuko said. "He won't get more than that boring ham between two slices of bread he packs with him."

"Oh! I didn't know you liked to watch for what he eats." Fuuka smiled. "I guess you need help in knowing what he likes to eat. By the way, don't we call such things 'sandwiches'? Ham between two slices of bread seems like a mouthful."

"It _is_ a mouthful!" Hamuko agreed. "He won't call it a sandwich! If I –"

"Oh hey, Hamu-tan!" Oh, of all the moments, Junpei had to listen now? He was standing right beside her. "Off to win over Makoto's heart, huh? You know, I'm surprised even someone like you would want to make moves on him already. We all know how quiet he is."

"It's nothing like that!" Hamuko smiled and waved her hands nervously because she was flustered. "Makoto-kun just needs a better lunch."

Fuuka smiled as well. "You could try shadowing him for the day. Sometimes if you observe his daily patterns, you might find clues to his preferences."

"Okay! I will do that!" Hamuko said.

That was a very good idea, and why hadn't she thought of that earlier? Maybe it was because she didn't like the idea of stalking the handsome bluehead. But for the sake of his wellbeing, he needed a new lunch. Hamuko then made her way out of Tartarus and in the direction of the dorm, much to the exasperation of the others.

"Wait! We're not going into Tartarus?!" Junpei said.

"No. Hamuko-chan seems really desperate to make a lunch for Makoto-kun," Fuuka replied.

"I would have recommended a good protein shake. Did you know that you can supplement your entire nutritional needs from a serving or two?"

"I doubt that is anything but healthy, Akihiko." Mitsuru sighed. "You two-fisted protein junkie. Arisato probably wants to impress Yuki with her cooking, but I don't think you embrace the concept."

"Hey! That's not fair!" Akihiko stared.

* * *

**Wednesday**

**Port Island Station: Morning**

The train arrived on schedule and Makoto stepped out of the doors, with hands in his pockets and his schoolbag draping on his shoulder. Upon arriving at the station, he would begin his routine walk through some streets of Tatsumi Port Island, passing through a couple city blocks, and the gates of Gekkoukan High would be in sight.

"_I've never felt like, so miserable. I've never felt like thinking this will last forever…_"

The lyrics played in his ears as he exited the train and out of the station. By the time he had gotten to ground level, Makoto would normally make his way toward the school. But for this particular morning, he was still feeling tired and sick. For that reason he went to the vending machine to buy a can of Starvicks, for the high price of 120 yen.

"_Way of life. Way of life. I heard you say we were on the same street. Way of life. Way of my life…_"

Not far behind, an auburn-haired girl, namely Hamuko, also stepped out of Port Island Station as well. She listened to the lyrics playing in her ears and they always seemed to make her smile wherever she went, not to mention mouthing the lyrics as she walked.

But when she saw her fellow blue-haired friend, she quickly put her MP3 player on pause and removed her headphones. This was the perfect moment to, for lack of better word, stalk him! If she could see what he was getting from this vending machine, then that might provide her a clue for making the perfect lunch for him.

Hamuko watched carefully as Makoto examined his choice of drinks from the vending machine. He picked out his choice and then retrieved the drink from the drop area. It was a can of Starvicks, which Hamuko knew to be a kind of popular coffee. Did Makoto need coffee this morning? When Hamuko got to sneak a glance of his face (despite his hair covering the right eye), she could see he looked tired and ill. Was coffee the answer?

"He must really like coffee…" she said to herself. Curious, Hamuko went to get a can of Starvicks herself when Makoto was away and walking. After depositing her yen and getting her can, she looked at the contents. "Coffee… and cough syrup?! What?!"

Hamuko paced herself in front of the vending machine and then in front of the cinema, trying to make sense of the hybrid (or mixture) of coffee and cough syrup in her hand. Did Makoto like drinking cough syrup regularly? This might be a possibility, but coffee was equally likely.

She then saw him walking further away, so she opened the can and began to drink the coffee and catch up to him. With her free hand she played with her MP3 player to switch songs.

"_I'm not a princess (a lot of anger in it). Not your cutie girlfriend oh no, don't you know (ho!). Flashy rhymes coated with spangles. Add some sounds in it times wangles…_"

"It's demolition…!" Hamuko sang to herself. "Wiping all out…"

As she walked, she passed by a store and bought some cough syrup and instant coffee. Surely! If she could get Makoto's favourite ingredients, she might make a better lunch. She also bought some extra stuff for curry too, since she knew how to make curry.

* * *

**Gekkoukan High: Lunchtime**

She had been in the home economics room for ten minutes making curry. Thankfully, the school bell wasn't due to ring for another half hour. That was perfect. When it was lunch or perhaps after school, her box would be ready and Makoto would eat it and like it. There was instant coffee and cough syrup in this curry, so he had to like it. It had his favourite foods, right? The curry and rice (as deep a purple as it was) was packed in a bento box, and really that was all there was.

So after class, Hamuko followed Makoto out of the homeroom so she could give him this bento.

But as Hamuko removed the lid to see the finished curry and rice, she lifted it up to her head and could sense something was awfully wrong.

"Why should he eat this…?" she wondered to herself. "No! I would just cause him to suffer again, like the other day." She saw that her curry and rice was not curry and rice at all. Instead, all she saw was a mix of purple sludge that was no improvement over her first attempt.

Tears started to well up in Hamuko's eyes.

"I can't cook…" she said.

In her sadness, she stood still and stared at her poor, poor, bento.

"Hey, there, Hamuko-chan." A familiar male voice spoke from behind. "Got a problem?"

"Oh!" Hamuko turned around. "H-hi, Ryoji-kun… No, nothing's wrong." She wiped her tears with her own sleeve. "Just trying to make a good lunch."

"No need to fear! If you're going to cry over lunch, we'll cry together." Ryoji then dragged Hamuko away to the home economics room. "Tell you what. After school, we'll make your lunch together. With me at the kitchen, you're in safe hands."

* * *

**Gekkoukan High: After School**

It had taken a long time to complete the bento box. In that unfortunate time for Ryoji, he had to bear witness to the cost of Hamuko's cooking. Now he had second thoughts whether it was a good idea to give Hamuko the opportunity to show her initial effort.

It ended with a pile of purple sludge, which Hamuko offered to him but he politely declined. The odour emanating from the lunch was so bad that it was causing his eyes to burn. The purple sludge was like the reincarnation of Death itself, a hunter unbeknownst to its prey. He had to thank Gekkoukan High for having a superior ventilation system to air out the home economics room, or else some would think the school (or the Kirijo Group) was creating some weapon of mass destruction of the edible kind.

Instead, he went about asking Hamuko some questions.

"When you make food, you should have a kind of theme going on in it. A bento must carry a bubbly emotion to it. You want to make something that makes the taste become a feeling." Ryoji said. "By the way, who is this bento for? Yourself?"

"We will make this a very good bento!" Hamuko said, not bothering with the question. "So what makes a good bento?"

"It must have protein!" Ryoji replied, like a lightbulb had gone over his head.

"Protein… You mean like protein powder?" Hamuko said.

Her thoughts immediately drifted to Akihiko, who always recommended a daily dose of the thing. It tasted awful, in her opinion, but Akihiko claimed he could fulfil his daily nutrient intake with the stuff. Hamuko sometimes wondered if there were alternatives to protein powder.

Ryoji chuckled.

"You're really funny, you know that, Hamuko-chan?" he said. "You know, I'm thinking of steak, pork, chicken, or fish. The classics! Or, there's always tofu as an alternative. You could think of cooler things like that, right?"

"Jack Frost…"

"What? Jack Frost?"

"Nothing! Nothing!"

So after some time passed, and countless tries and retries, Hamuko Arisato burst out of the home economics room with a newly prepared and wrapped bento box. As she ran off, Ryoji couldn't help smiling to himself, but he wondered just what exactly this point of all this was.

* * *

"_Ooh yeah! Da-da da-da da-da da-da! Baby, baby! __Ta-da-da da-da Da-da-da da-da…!_"

Mass Destruction continued playing in his ears as Makoto Yuki packed up his remaining things, got his shoes, and left Gekkoukan High. He made his way across the courtyard and to the gates as usual, where he could probably watch a movie at Port Island Station, or get a _takoyaki_ at the Iwatodai strip mall, or visit the shrine. So many things he could do… If only he could get all that done in one go.

While he walked to the gates as Mass Destruction blasted in his ears, he was oblivious to the world around him.

"_Fear's awake, anger beats loud, face reality. Never beat charity…_"

"_Time. Old dry winds go by. Lone air comes quietly…_"

"Makoto-kun…!"

"_The enemy you're fighting covers all society. Damn right. Mommy's not here, gotta fight. All night…_"

"_Time. Old dry winds go by. Uncertain space…_"

"Makoto-kun…!"

"_Don't ease you pace, 'cuz enemy's brutal. Moment of truth, there ain't no truce. You're the only one, one world, one love but the battle goes on, shadows of mass destr–"_

"_Every time. Good-bye to yesterday. Greeted by today. Smiling to tomorrow…_"

"Makoto-kun!"

Her voice _finally _broke into his ears. Makoto stopped, removed his deafening headphones, and turned around to see a smiling Hamuko walking towards him. She looked really, really, really, happy to see him, like she always was.

"Hamuko-chan…?" Makoto muttered.

She was approaching him with a box. Makoto hazarded a guess that it was another attempt at making a bento lunch for him. For that reason, he took a step back from her. Like Pyro Jack, there was no telling what kind of mischief Hamuko was up to and whether her bento would send him to the gates of death again.

"I've got something for you! You'll like it!" she said as she kept walking towards him.

But for some reason, her foot had caught a loose piece of stone on the ground which sent Hamuko flat on the ground face-first. And as she was flattened, her bento was sent flying into the air and the contents of her bento spilled all over the ground.

"Hamuko-chan? Are you okay?" Makoto said calmly.

Hamuko was hurt, and she felt like crying.

* * *

**You have to feel bad for Hamuko here. First nearly pushing her blue-haired friend to Death, and messed up the second time...**


	3. Failure 3 (Junpei and Shinjiro)

**I'm probably having too much fun with this. Anyways, thanks to the 12 viewers who have favourited this story along with the 9 followers! You know who you are.**

**And sure, no need to thank GrimReaperJr1232, but you get honourable mention.**

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**Failure 3 (Junpei and Shinjiro)**

**Wednesday**

**Iwatodai Dorm: Evening**

"Sup dude?" Junpei greeted Hamuko as Hamuko entered the dorm. "Hamu-tan! Whoa. Whoa! WHOA! Your face…" He pointed at how bad Hamuko's face looked.

Feeling as hurt and as insulted, Hamuko punched Junpei in the face and then left him on the floor. For all Hamuko cared, she might as well have left him for dead in the dorm. She didn't care. She just wanted to go back to her room on the third floor and sleep.

Meanwhile, the rest of the SEES team arrived to find a limp body on the floor. Junpei was apparently unconscious, but Koromaru had assured everyone that he was still alive. Because of that, everyone just let him be.

Hamuko went back to her room eventually and cried to sleep, but not before playing around with her Jack Frost and Pyro Jack dolls. She was simply too sad to keep going. Why, it was bad enough that she didn't leave her room when the Dark Hour came.

* * *

**Thursday**

**Gekkoukan High: After School**

For Makoto Yuki, it was bad enough to be fighting Shadows every night at Tartarus and tiring his brain out. But it was just as bad when there were lectures to listen to and homework to do, and that and extracurricular things like the sports teams or the student council. Between all of this, it was impossible to get sleep. So, it was no wonder he appeared to be tired every day.

"You sure you're okay, Makoto-kun? Don't push yourself," Yukari said to him after the final bell.

"I will carry him home if I must." Aigis offered.

"I appreciate your concerns, but I'll be fine…" Makoto muttered. His voice was muffled by his arms as he had slept on his desk again. So many burdens and commitments plagued his mind, he wondered when he would ever get a chance to rest.

What could he do today…?

* * *

**Iwatodai Dorm: Evening**

When Hamuko returned, she collapsed on the sofa and played with her Jack Frost and Pyro Jack dolls. She thought about how to make Makoto-kun a perfect lunch again, but it just wasn't working. How was it possible? Even with Ryoji's help, she couldn't even deliver the lunch to Makoto properly and it all went to waste.

"Hamuko-san…? Are you okay?"

Aigis was in the room, watching over her from afar.

"ArrrrrrRRRRRGH! He is so annoying! How hard can it BE?!" Hamuko screamed.

"Hamuko-san. At the rate of your screaming, you will get a sore throat. Please do not scream." Aigis said. "As they say, if you want to scream, there is always the rooftop."

The door opened, and the blue-haired guy walked in. That was more than enough to silence Hamuko instantly.

"Greetings." Aigis said to welcome Makoto back, of which Makoto nodded back without saying anything.

"Where have you been?" Makoto said.

"I have been here attending to the dorm," Aigis replied, and then she looked at Hamuko for a second, who had a pink face. "I have just made an interesting observation, that Hamuko-san raises her voice when she is frustrated, but when Makoto-san is nearby, she stays quiet. Her body temperature in the area around her face has suddenly increased to –"

"Ummmm… Okay, that's enough, Aigis." Hamuko interrupted. "I'm off to bed." And then she dashed off to upstairs.

Makoto blinked.

"Meh."

* * *

**Friday**

**Iwatodai Dorm: After School**

She was going to make this work no matter what! Hamuko arrived from school extra early to get her bento put together. At this point she wondered what the point of all of this was. She got the rice cooking, she got the vegetables chopped up and the eggs cooking. She had to get this done! For him! But this couldn't go to waste: she had made a special trip to Junes for this very thing.

Aigis was in the kitchen as well.

"Hamuko-san. Are you okay?" she said.

"He needs this lunch. He needs this lunch. He needs this lunch…" Hamuko muttered to herself. She unpacked the contents from her shopping bag and thought about how she would put this meal together.

"But Hamuko-san. It is after school. If you expect to eat that lunch I'm afraid it will go cold by the time lunchtime arrives."

Hamuko stopped at what she was doing.

"But… There's always dinner, right?"

And just like that Hamuko went back to work again. "Thank you, Aigis! Of course! Why didn't I think of that?!" She was hard at work again, trying her very best to complete this bento in time for dinner. Makoto would eat it and like it, or so Hamuko hoped. But generally, she was frustrated throughout the entire cooking process and wondered just how much more her body and mind could take. It was just a bento!

After a while, Hamuko came bursting out of the kitchen, and it was nearing dinner by then.

* * *

**Iwatodai Dorm: Evening**

Hamuko wore a bright face while she was carrying her boxed dinner with her. Makoto was probably at the lounge by this hour, so surely he would be more than happy to have dinner ready for him. That is, of course, if he didn't eat something before he came back. But there was always hope.

"Fuuka-chan? Is Makoto-kun back yet?" she asked, as Fuuka had just passed by.

"Yes. He looks hungry, though," she replied.

"Oh, oh! That's good!" Hamuko said and then went to look for the blue-haired guy. If he was in the lounge, then he must be sitting at the table or on the sofa. This was the perfect opportunity! If Makoto was that hungry, then the timing couldn't have been better. Was it meant to be?

Hamuko peeked at the lounge when she arrived.

And what she saw absolutely devastated her, such that she almost dropped her boxed dinner.

Makoto was there, yes, sitting on the armchair.

But Shinjiro was also there sitting on the sofa beside him. In front of the two boys was what appeared to be a huge feast of food. Roasted meats of different kinds and many varieties of seafood were on display at the table, and its aroma wafted throughout the lounge. It was very appetising.

And, unfortunately, Makoto was having a full plate of it. He looked satisfied.

Hamuko stood with her mouth agape. "…"

* * *

**You have to feel bad for Hamuko!**


	4. Incentive (Mitsuru and SEES)

**Many thanks to the readers who have read this story, and to those who have favourited and followed it! It's almost done too. Honourable mentions to dangstaBOI (yes... Shinji had the guts to cook for Makoto-kun) and Viate!**

* * *

**Incentive (Mitsuru and SEES)**

**Saturday**

**Iwatodai Dorm: Before Dawn**

At least on the third floor of the dorm, everyone knew that Hamuko had practically been bawling her eyes out the entire night. It was so bad that _everyone_ on the floor had to check at least once how she was doing. Yukari and Fuuka, for instance, felt sorry for her. Aigis had been pointing out the evidence suggesting this was Makoto's fault, meanwhile.

Thanks to Aigis, at least all the girls understood that Hamuko had desperately wanted to make a delicious meal for that handsome, quiet, blue-haired guy. Hamuko cared for him very much, to say the least.

Mitsuru decided to visit Hamuko's room first thing in the morning.

"Arisato? It's me…" she said, knocking on the door and realised that the handle wasn't locked. When Hamuko did not answer, Mitsuru added, "I'm coming in."

When Mitsuru walked into Hamuko's room, what she saw was amusing. She expected only someone like Hamuko to appear like _this_.

Hamuko was curled up in her bed, yes, but had her entire body rolled into the blankets. If Mitsuru hadn't known better, she would have thought Hamuko was curled up like a giant slab of ham or at least a cinnamon roll, or a Swiss roll cake. There was no other way to interpret this: Hamuko was displaying a very mediocre version of depression, and it didn't help that her Jack Frost and Pyro Jack dolls were scattered on the floor.

Mitsuru knelt down to pick up the fallen dolls and place them back on Hamuko's bed. She could hear Hamuko continue sobbing and crying, like she had lost her purpose in life. But to her credit, Hamuko was trying to impress a certain boy, so this must be serious.

Mitsuru smiled, like she pitied her.

"It's not the time to be rolled up like ham, you know," she said.

"Mitsuru-senpai…" Hamuko choked; her tears were making her speech hard. "I can't do it."

Mitsuru sat down on the bed and gently rocked the rolled-up Hamuko. "Come now, you've been through many battles before. How hard can this one be?"

"But I've… p-put in so much effort and it s-still isn't working…" Hamuko sobbed. "First time, I made him sick. Second time, I tripped. Third time, I s-saw Shinjiro-senpai…" Even the mere thought of her failures made it difficult to bear and think. She rolled over away from Mitsuru's sight and kept sobbing into mattress.

Now Mitsuru chuckled. How could something as innocent as making a meal be this serious? The bright and bubbly Hamuko usually could let go of things like this pretty easily. If Hamuko wanted to impress Makoto, Mitsuru knew Hamuko couldn't do it alone. Mitsuru rolled Hamuko back so that she was looking into her wet eyes.

"You're not giving up just yet! Come on, let's get it done," she said, smiling.

Hamuko blinked, but she didn't look convinced.

Suddenly Mitsuru's smiling demeanor was replaced by an icy stare. "Okay, Arisato. Then I suspect that your sad state is entirely Yuki's fault. I will not allow him to harm you this way, so I'll tell you what. If it's okay, if you won't go make a meal for him, then I'll wait for him to return to the dorm and I will execute him for hurting you."

Hamuko's eyes suddenly went as wide as saucers.

"Yes…" Mitsuru snickered and looked upward. "He must be executed!"

"No, no! Mitsuru-senpai! You can't!" Hamuko suddenly found herself trying to break free from her roll. "No! I won't let you do that! I'm going to make lunch for him today!"

* * *

Later in that morning, Hamuko was busy working away in the dorm kitchen. Under Mitsuru's supervision, Hamuko was really doing all she could to put together the perfect bento box that Makoto might enjoy (and Makoto had left the dorm early, as it happened. He wanted to grab breakfast at Iwatodai Station).

"Just think. What comes to mind when you think of him?" Mitsuru said.

"Jack Frost…" Hamuko said. "I have an idea!"

She kept at it under the watchful eye of Mitsuru. Her cooking meanwhile was starting to attract attention from the rest of the dorm. First to notice were Yukari and Fuuka, and the first thing they noticed on Hamuko was her dedicated eyes and her apron to prove it.

"Oh? What's going on?" Yukari said. "Is Hamuko-chan having another go?"

"I'm sure she'll do great," Fuuka said. "There's no way she can fail now, right?"

"Alright, go Hamuko-chan!" Yukari cheered.

But Hamuko's eyes were focused on the food before her. She started to furiously beat some eggs together. For Makoto's sake, this must be the best lunch ever put together, and today Hamuko wasn't going to let him slip through her fingers again. Today, she would finish this lunch and hunt him down.

Yukari grinned, seeing how seriously Hamuko was taking this.

"She really wants to make this a good one, doesn't she?" Yukari said.

"But I'm sure he will enjoy it, regardless," Fuuka added. "Hamuko-chan is putting a lot of heart into this."

She watched Hamuko add what looked like blue food colouring and vinegar to a small container which also had uncooked rice in it. The blue food colouring stood out to most, but no one dared ask any questions. Indeed, Mitsuru looked impressed as Hamuko laid out the blue-coloured rice to dry. After that, she started attending to the eggs again.

"Oh? What's going on?" a younger voice said from behind Yukari. It was Ken.

"Shh! You've got to see this, Ken-kun!" Yukari said excitedly.

When Ken looked in to the kitchen, he smiled just like everyone else. Hamuko was hard at work making food, and lunch from the looks of it. By then, practically the rest of dorm had caught wind of what was going on. Even Koromaru, Aigis, Akihiko, and Shinjiro wanted a peek at Hamuko's efforts. However, there was so much congestion at the kitchen door that Akihiko couldn't see anything. At least Shinjiro was tall.

"Tch…" Shinjiro muttered. "Everyone knows that blue is the worst colour food can get…"

"Then… Why don't you go help her, Shinji?" Akihiko said. "Do you know how to…?"

"Like that will ever happen."

"Shinjiro-san has a natural talent for cooking." Aigis said. "The optimal solution would be for him to make the food instead. In his downtime when no one is looking, he will sneak copies of the monthly cooking magazine–"

"Enough of that!" Shinjiro cut in. He palmed his forehead. "Looks like there's no way around it…"

He stepped into the kitchen and rolled up his sleeves. Time to supervise Hamuko's cooking, he supposed, much to the surprise of _everyone_ at SEES, save for Mitsuru, perhaps.

"Hi there, Shinjiro-senpai!" Hamuko said. "What do you think?"

Shinjiro glanced down at Hamuko's creations.

"What do you hope to make from this?" he said, eyeing the blue rice.

* * *

It had taken a long time to complete the bento box, but it was finally finished and in time for everyone to leave for school. Mitsuru was impressed. Had Hamuko taken another five minutes, this would have all been for naught. _Everyone_ would have been late for school. It was a good thing Shinjiro had stuck around, or else things would have taken longer.

And for good reason, because after Hamuko finally assembled her bento box and had it wrapped, she realised that the rest of SEES was watching her.

"Everyone…?" she said. She wore a surprised face.

The smiles she received from everyone, except from Shinjiro and Aigis, brought some kind of warmth in her heart. No one said anything, except for Mitsuru. "I'm sure he will enjoy it," she said. "He has good reason to do so."

"And I'm sure you won't run into any problems." Fuuka said, grinning. "Oh! It's almost time for school. We don't want to be late."

Now that she thought of it, how was she going to find Makoto anyway?

She needed help.

"Fuuka-chan," Hamuko said. "Do you know if you could, um, tell me where he is?"

Giving Hamuko a strange look, Fuuka summoned her Persona – briefly – to look for him. It was a huge invasion of privacy, yes, but for Hamuko's sake, some exceptions had to be made.

"He appears to be heading to class right now. Hamuko-chan, you could wait until–"

But Hamuko had already burst out of the kitchen, nearly flattening everyone in the process, and to her room. She needed to get this bento to school as fast as possible, or else risk two things: first, Makoto would be eating a ham between two slices of bread _again_, and second, he would be executed.

Hamuko didn't want Makoto to be executed.

As she returned to the lounge, she went to kitchen to pick up the bento box. But after picking it up, a thought crossed her mind. She was going to give Makoto another lunch, but the thought of giving it to him again suddenly made her feel embarrassed. Her face started to blush over thinking of how Makoto would feel about accepting food from her.

But as she walked towards Iwatodai Station, she had a feeling that things would turn out okay.


	5. Success (Makoto)

**This story had to have been my fastest growing story ever! Thanks for reading! And without further here's the final chapter. Hats off to GrimReaperJr1232, wellhaithar, and JeaSonDash.**

* * *

**Success (Makoto)**

**Saturday**

**Gekkoukan High: After School**

Makoto hadn't eaten yet, but he had good reason to. For some reason, Edogawa-sensei had wanted him to bring a giant dummy to the medical room for 'research' purposes. Makoto shuddered over thinking what would happen if he went to the medical room again. Would he be on the receiving end of another ghastly concoction by the strange teacher? He already had a fill of it the past Tuesday and couldn't stomach the thought of stomaching another one.

The dummy looked suspiciously like a Hanged Man.

He yawned and carried the dummy through the hallways from his classroom and to the medical room. Whatever was the case, Makoto wanted to get it over with so that he could enjoy his food.

"_If you wanna battle then I'll take it to the street, where there's no rules, take off the gloves ref please step down, gotta prove my skills so get down…_"

He hadn't heard this song for a while now, hadn't he?

"_Six to seven to eight to nine ten. I flip the script to make it to the top ten_ –"

"There you are, Makoto-kun!"

Makoto turned around, but had no time to react as Hamuko seized one of his hands and dragged him away to the stairs. As a result, the dummy was dropped and lay completely still on the floor, while there was nothing Makoto could do to get the body back. Some fellow students, including Chihiro and Hidetoshi, stopped by to ponder why a body was left on the floor on its own.

* * *

On the school rooftop, Hamuko forced Makoto to sit down on the stone bench near the flowers (yes, she remembered how Makoto had moved heaven and earth to find those flowers once, just to water them). Now that Makoto had her attention…

"What do you want, Hamuko-chan?" Makoto said. "I was about to start on my ham betw–"

"Don't give me _that_!" Hamuko interrupted. "Haven't you had enough of your slices of bread? Come on, you need something better to eat than that! I mean, I am trying to get you to eat better food!"

"And look where that got me the first time," Makoto muttered. "Eating your lunch led me to a date with Death."

"It's different this time!" Hamuko replied, her face getting red.

But he noticed something different with Hamuko. While she looked optimistic, she looked nervous too. Was there something going on with her that needed help? But Makoto couldn't say much as Hamuko brought the familiar-looking wrapped bento box out of her bag. With a still-blushing and hot face, Hamuko held the box out for him to take.

"Please take it!" she said. "Makoto-kun!"

Reluctantly, Makoto took the box with shaky hands. He could hear his consciousness telling him to reject everything about this box. Fear overcame his senses. There was no way, _no way_, he was going to accept something that would bring him to face Death again.

With a shaky hand, he touched the lid. He could already hear a voice from the box itself warning him not to open it. Whatever Hamuko made, it would spell his doom again. The contents of the box were like the harbinger of Death, and Death was calling out to Makoto from within.

He removed the lid, expecting Death to look at him in the eye. He could even _hear_ it speaking…

* * *

**The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed…**

**Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end.**

**It matters not who you are… Death awaits you.**

* * *

…but what Makoto saw surprised him. It was not Death.

Instead, a bright and colourful bento box was smiling back at him. The first things standing out were the rice, decorated with nori, blue-coloured rice, and a carefully cut slice of pickled ginger that together looked exactly like a smiling Jack Frost's face. There was an omelette mixed with who-knows-what but it smelled delicious. Then there was the side dishes –fried fish mixed with nori, two pieces of sashimi, and a wakame salad.

The box looked extremely tempting, but Makoto had low expectations. The first time he ate Hamuko's lunch, Death greeted him. How would this be any different?

"_Itadakimasu_…" he muttered, but didn't know if he really meant it.

He picked up his chopsticks and began to eat…

Not sure _what_ to expect from this effort, Hamuko shut her eyes tight and prayed that Makoto would enjoy it. He had to like it. He had to! All she could hear was Makoto eating. First there was the crackle of fried fish, then there was the sound of chopsticks hitting the floor of the box as it picked up bits of omelette and rice…

"Delicious." Makoto whispered. It was better than his ham between two slices of bread that he normally ate. This was a meal good enough to send his ham between two slices of bread into retirement.

But Hamuko's anxiety got to her.

"Nononononononononono! Don't eat it, Makoto-kun!" she screamed.

He lifted his eyes to question her reaction, but eventually the bento was finished. Not one grain of rice remained and Hamuko opened her eyes to see a satisfied Makoto. He lifted the box up for her to see the empty box.

"Why so surprised, Hamuko?" he said.

Hamuko felt her face and her ears turn pink. Not even calling her Hamuko-chan, eh?

She smiled brightly and sat down beside him.

"So, you made this yourself?" Makoto said, to which Hamuko nodded. "I liked your cooking. That Jack Frost was very clever." He clapped his hands together. "_Gochisou-sama_."

Hamuko didn't know how to answer that, but she giggled, smiling as she did. Her cheeks became a bright pink. "Eheheh... I'm glad you liked it, Makoto."

They spent some time together listening to each other's MP3 tracks for the next while until it was dark. Before they went back to the dorm, Makoto treated Hamuko for dinner at Hagakure, and Hamuko didn't mind. She could learn more of the art of cooking while she was there, while she was just as happy to spend the rest of the Saturday with him.

* * *

**End!**


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